Once upon a time I did used to spend my free time doing things besides knitting. Despite the fact that some people (my mother) ;) now ask me if I do anything else at all besides knitting, I think what’s happened is that knitting has slowly but steadily colonized all of my other hobbies. I used to work with beads, but now my bead box sits idly on the shelf. I used to bake things, but now only do that on special occasions. And of course, I did used to do a lot more reading for pleasure, not so much any more – although that may have more to do with the fact that I do various academic reading during the week and so reading has gradually lost its lustre.

Anyhoo. I went back to all of these things yesterday – dusted off The Woman in White and read 80 pages at bedtime, and in the afternoon I got out the beads…

I’d promised to make 2 sets of stitch markers for another knitter, and once I finally sat down to do it I just kept on stringing more sets, cranking out 7 sets altogether. I might have done more, except I eventually ran out of jump rings and my fingers were getting stiff from using the pliers. I’ll have to get more jump rings eventually if/when I want to do more – but around these parts the bead stores are located handily near a couple of my favourite yarn stores, so that way lies temptation and madness.

(Pseudo-early-Valentine’s Day cupcakes.)

And, well, there are very few things that will not be improved by cupcakes, don’t you think? Me too.

I did finish off the Ribbi Cardi on Friday, but have no FO pics to share as of yet – I still need buttons, and I also still need to gift it to the recipient (my supervisor), and so I’m holding off on any photos until I’m absolutely sure that it fits the wearer and all is well. I’m a little bit nervous and am crossing my fingers for the best, but I think all will be well. Thanks to the cold weather, I’m also dreaming of casting on for new things like this and this, but am being good and am still keeping myself on track with the things still on the needles.

Happy Sunday!

Knitting To Stay Sane
One Canadian knitter dabbling in everything from socks to sweaters to pattern design.